United States of America versus Elcom Ltd., also known as ElcomSoft Co. Ltd., and Dmitry Sklyarov

Decided

ElcomSoft acquitted by a federal jury on December 17, 2002

Case history

Prior action(s)

Dmitry Sklyarov dropped from prosecution in exchange for agreeing to testify and to leave the U.S.

United States v. ElcomSoft and Dmitry Sklyarov was a 2001–2002 criminal case in which Dmitry Sklyarov and his employer ElcomSoft were charged with alleged violation of the DMCA. The case raised some concerns of civil rights and legal process, and ended in the charges against Sklyarov dropped and Elcomsoft ruled not guilty under the applicable jurisdiction.

The original issue came to the attention of prosecutors when Adobe Systems, a US company, complained that copy protection arrangements in its e-book file format were being illegally circumvented by ElcomSoft's product. Adobe withdrew its complaint, but United States Department of Justice prosecutors (under the authority of local U.S. AttorneyRobert S. Mueller, future Director of the FBI) declined to likewise drop the charges. ElcomSoft's product, and thus presumably the efforts of its employees including Sklyarov, were entirely legal in Russia. Sklyarov was eventually released on bail, but forced to remain in California, separated from his family, until his case concluded.

The day after his arrest several web sites, coordinated from the website freesklyarov.org, and mailing lists started to organize protests against his arrest, many of them under the slogan "Free Dmitry" or "Free Sklyarov". The main point of these campaigns was that no DMCA violations were committed at DEF CON, and the DMCA does not apply in Russia, so Sklyarov was being arrested for something that was perfectly legal in his jurisdiction. A campaign to boycott Adobe products was also launched.

On July 19, 2001, the Association of American Publishers issued a press release announcing their support of his arrest. Adobe initially supported the arrest, but they then had a meeting with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. At the meeting, an EFF spokesperson stated that "if I were you I would be concerned about the safety of traveling Adobe executives." After the meeting, they issued a joint press release on July 23, 2001, recommending his release. However, Adobe still supports the case against ElcomSoft.